Coffee Priangan In The Nineteenth Century.
COFFEE PRIANGAN
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
by
Mumuh Muhsin Zakaria
(Universitas Padjadjaran)
The course of Priangan history during almost two centuries, in the VOC and
Dutch colonial period, was nearly identical to
coffee cultivation. The
consideration based on that Priangan was temporally the first region in Java where
coffee cultivation introduced; then quantitatively coffee cultivation of Priangan
engaged the number of man power and large of land extensively, so that
consequently the product of coffee from this residency was always the highest
than the other residencies throughout Java. Besides, in favour of coffee
cultivation, within residency was operated very long aged system then known as
Preangerstelsel from 1677 until 1870.1
The significance of Priangan coffee to Dutch treasury could be illustrated
as follows. Around 1726 the VOC accounted for about 50 percent to 75 percent of
the world coffee trade. Of the total turnover of the VOC, which was over
4,000,000 pounds, approximately over 75 percent was produced in Priangan.2
Further evidence, in the first half of the nineteenth century for Dutch exchequer,
coffee had always been the product on which the greatest profit was made. For
1
Jacob Worter de Klein. 1931. Het Preanger-stelsel (1677-1871) en zijn nawerking (Doctor diss.,
Leiden). Delf: J. Waltman Jr.
2
G.J. Knaap. 1986. ”Coffee for Cash; the Dutch East India Company and the Expansion of Coffee
Cultivation in Java, Ambon and Cylon 1700-1730“ in J. van Gor ed. Trading companies in Asia
1600-1830. Utrecht: Hes Uitgevers, p. 34.
1
2
example, between 1840 and 1849 alone was obtained about 65 million guilders
compared with 15 million for indigo. Sugar did not become profitable until after
1845. The highest contributor for coffee production was Priangan. 3 As the main
producer of coffee, the position of Priangan had been first replaced by Pasuruan in
the beginning of 1860s,4 but the Priangan Residency remained a bulwark of the
coffee system.
Initially coffee was introduced by the VOC to Priangan in the early of
eighteenth century. The first coffee was planted in 1707. The motivation that
encourage the VOC to plant coffee in its controlled region was highly connected
to the global competition of world coffee market. Towards the end of the
seventeenth century the demand for coffee in Europe was rising. To respond the
need of coffee in the European market the VOC bought it from Yemen in amount
which was increased steadily. For instance, around 1695 of 300,000 to 400,000
ponds, around 1707 of 500,000 ponds, from 1715 onwards almost 1,500,000
ponds.5 The buyers of Yemen coffee were, of course, not only the VOC, but also
from other countries such as British, Turkey, and so on. Consequently, the rivalry
happened and strengthened, and, in turn, the cost price started to rise considerably,
so the margin obtained was little. Therefore, to replace the position of Yemen, the
VOC made an effort to seek an alternative region where could have been a place
to product much of coffee.
3
C. Fasseur. 1975. The Politics of Colonial Exploitation in Java; the Dutch and the Cultivation
System. SEAP: Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, p. 36.
4
For detailed figure of coffee production by 1854-1870 in Javanese Residencies see R.E. Elson.
1994. Village Java under the Cultivation System 1830-1870. Sydney: ASAA and Allen and
Unwin, p. 139.
5
G.J. Knaap, 1986: 36.
3
In 1723 reported that in the Priangan residency there were approximately
2,141,000 coffee trees from which 1,041,000 were fruit bearing. In western
Priangan the population had started cultivation on their own lands on a large scale,
and east and centre Priangan were to follow this example very soon. Therefore,
around 1725 surprisely, Priangan coffee had surpassed Yemen as the principle
centre of coffee production from which the VOC purchased it.6
The question, then, appears is how the cultivation system of coffee in
Priangan operated, so that was stable relatively, at least, until the half fist of the
nineteenth century. The successful of coffee cultivation really related to some
factors, among others were the suitable land, available man power, crop payment,
cultivation percentage, and supervision. Such factors could be categorized into
four board variables that are ecology, organization of production, and labour.
Ecology and Soil
For the successful of coffee plantation the first factor was naturally the
suitability of the soil. In principle coffee plantation were laid out on virgin lands
relatively far from the villages, so that, unlike sugar, these planting did not occupy
6
Ibid. As comparison, coffee purchased by the VOC from Yemen and Priangan from 1722 to 1728
could be seen the followed table (production in ton):
Year
Yemen
Priangan
1722
832
6
1723
427
36
1724
399
663
1725
228
1,264
1726
277
2,145
1727
264
2,076
1728
0
2,021
See David Bulbeck et al. (comp.). 1998. Southeast Asian Exports since the 14th Cloves, Pepper,
Coffee, and Sugar. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, p. 144.
4
farming land intended for food production. The altitude was just as important as
the soil; ideally between 1,000 and 4,000 feet. Beneath the level the shrub was
able to grow but needs grow even better, hence lower altitudes meant a lot of
maintenance. The agriculture chemist P.F.H. Fronberg believed that the
cultivation of coffee below 1,000 feet should be forbidden. About 4,000 feet the
coffee shrub would remain productive longer and could grow much older that at
lower level, but the yield per shrub was much less.7 So, the better results are
usually obtained in higher situated areas.
Coffee plantation was usually situated in the hilly lower ranges of
mountain slopes. The landscape of Priangan is fortunately dominated by mountain
ranges and high plains. The high mountain ranges in Priangan gave the plantation
relatively good protection against the strong sea winds. Moreover, in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the condition of soil would have been quite
suitable for coffee. Priangan which was not yet a densely populated territory must
have had a very considerable area of uncultivated land. Coffee particularly well on
soil newly reclaimed from primary forest.8
Therefore, it is understandable when within the Cultivation Reports have
never stated how many bouw9 of land were assigned for the cultivation of coffee
that was contrast with the data provided for sugar and indigo cultivation.10 For the
7
Frans van Baardewijk. 1994. “Rural response to intensifying colonial exploitation; coffee, state
and society in Central and East Java, 1830-1880“, in G.J. Schutte. State and Trade in the
Indonesian Archipelago. Leiden: KITLV Press, p. 161.
8
G.J. Knaap, 1986: 44.
9
Bouw is a unit of traditional large measurement equal to 500 Rijn roeden2 or 7096,5 m2 or
1,7587 acre (Engl. measure); see Anon. 1914. Maten en Gewichten van Nederlandsch Oost-Indie
(handboek voor cultuur en handels-ondernemingen in nederlandsch indie).
10
C. Fasseur, 1975: 28.
5
cultivation of coffee, unused or waste land (woeste gronden) was gradually
employed, whereas sugar and indigo cultivation took place in the densely
populated lowlands. Such a situation, in turn, appeared a considerable difference
between coffee cultivation and sugar cultivation both in agrarian and social
implications. Coffee was not grown in symbiosis with rice, but rather on virgin
land, even often located far from the village. Thus, officially coffee was grown
alongside other foods and commercial crops. In the other side, the cultivation of
coffee was also far simpler in organization than that of sugar. The role of the
village elite was more restricted and this reduced their chances at strengthening
themselves politically and economically. It seems that coffee cultivation did not
lead to the drastic changes in the distribution of land-ownership and income which
apparently were so typical of the sugar growing areas. Besides, there was hardly
any ruled for additional labour, hence it offered the landless peasants no new job
opportunities. Then, coercion certainly played a role in rising coffee production,
but in the long run, in many districts coercion was not a decisive factor. There the
economic significance of coffee cultivation to the planters themselves determined
its destiny. 11 For the nineteenth century control over labour was more crucial than
control over land; for the later seemed in oversupply, whereas the former, if not in
short supply, was difficult to manage and exploit.12
Within Priangan residency itself, the suitable land for coffee cultivation
was not similar. The western Priangan was the principal area of production then
followed by the eastern Priangan, as well among the regencies within the eastern
11
12
Frans van Baardewijk, 1994:153.
Ibid.
6
one. For example, regencies of Bandung and Cianjur were more productive than
Parakanmuncang and Sumedang. Therefore, in the early of nineteenth century, in
the period of Daendels, the grouping of regency to which one grouped was based
on the fairly similar production of coffee as consideration. Daendels, for instance,
at 20 June 1810, divided Priangan into two groups: firstly, regencies of Cianjur,
Bandung,
Parakanmuncang, and Sumedang entered to Jacatra (now, Jakarta),
then named “Landdrost-ambt der Jacatrasche en Preanger
bovenlanden”;
secondly, regencies of Sukapura, Limbangan, and Galuh entered to Cheribon, then
named “Landdrost-ambt den Cheribonsche Preanger-regentschappen”.13 In the
other side, Daendels stated a policy that the carrier and conduit of a regent based
on the successful of coffee production of his regency. Even Daendels could
whenever retire a regent who was not success in coffee cultivation. Such a case
happened to the regents of Sukapura and Galuh. 14
Although the widespread obligation to expand coffee trees and to increase
product had already persisted, even, since the VOC period, but the regional impact
of forced coffee was uneven. The difference amount of total trees and production
among the regencies within Priangan residencies might have been among others
caused by the difference altitude of each regency and the level of suitability and
fertility. As a concrete illustration of these differences could be seen the figure of
coffee trees in each regency within Priangan in the periods of 1832 – 1864
13
Then at 2nd March 1811 Daendels reformed Priangan, that was regencies of Limbangan and
Sukapura which before were in Landdrost-ambt den Cheribonsche Preanger-regentschappen to
have been a part of the Landdrost-ambt der Jacatrasche en Preanger bovenlanden; and the latter
named Landdrost-ambt der Jacatrasche en den Cheribonsche Preanger regentschappen. See J.A.
van der Chijs. 1897. Nedrlandsch-Indisch Plakaatboek, 1602-1811. Zestiende deel 1810-1811.
Batavia-’s Hage: Landsdrukkerij-M.Nijhoff, pp. 234-235 and 591-235.
14
J.A. van der Chijs. Ibid.
7
(TABLE 1) that shows the shifting size of coffee cultivation within Priangan as a
whole and the different development within each regency, although late 1830s
was top.
TABLE 1
COFFEE TREES IN PRIANGAN (1832-1864)
REGENCY
Cianjur
Bandung
Sumedang
Limbangan
Sukapura
Total
1832
13,017,006
15,942,158
9,971,177
5,965,989
375,000
45,271,331
1835
TOTAL TREES
1836
19,180,432
30,020,550
17,736,760
8,045,155
6,225,670
81,208,567
24,202,804
30,247,200
18,587,093
10,245,845
10,678,612
93,961,554
1839
24,488,406
29,398,100
8,598,230
18,979,676
5,627,097
87,091,509
1864
13,619,303
20,041,750
10,100,360
5,252,983
2,005,337
51,019,733
Sources: AV Preanger, 29a/19, 1932; AVPreanger 36/3, 1835; AV Preanger, 2/7, 1935; Preanger
Statistiek 1836, AV Preanger 7/1, 1837; AV Preanger 34/1, 1839; AV Preanger 30/6, 1864.
Parallel to the differences of amount of coffee trees, from which clearly
seem that Bandung was the most, then followed by Cianjur, Sumedang,
Limbangan, and Sukapura, the similar situation happened on the differences of
amount of product (TABLE 2). Possible reasons behind it were natural and
structural factors. The fist factor meant that the southern regencies were not so
suitable for coffee; and the second factor meant that the regencies were located far
from central government of Residency, so the supervision of coffee cultivation
was not as intense as Regencies closed to central of Residency.
8
TABLE 2
COMPARISON OF COFFE PRODUCTION IN PRIANGAN (1820-1835)
(in pikul of 125 pond Amsterdam)
YEAR Cianjur
1820 10487
1821 18014
1822 24837
1823 18269
1824 18512
1825 48515
1826 24770
1827 50726
1828 42109
1829 18839
1830 18748
1831 10683
1832 11543
1833 12321
1834 46711
1835 16116
Bandung
17311
28521
26931
24767
23172
22139
24473
30448
23139
25562
22084
17723
22328
33290
74428
46228
REGENCIES OF
Sumedang
Limbangan
5917
18262
17542
11295
13890
21931
16278
23514
15328
10398
11693
5812
9560
9347
20122
7936
4570
16610
17264
12374
10102
13411
15312
17214
14206
9665
9649
4786
9805
10084
18045
10517
Sukapura
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
61
717
288
TOTAL
(in pikul)
38285
81407
86574
66705
65676
105996
80833
121902
94782
64464
62174
39004
53236
65103
160023
81085
Source: "Statistiek der Residentie Preanger Regentschappen 1837", Preanger 29a/1 1837, ANRI
Organization of Production
Generally the success of coffee cultivation in Priangan was not only thanks
to ecological factors, such as suitable and fertile soils but also practically the
cultivation was operated by a system that has been credited to state coercion,
building on traditional forms of tribute levying and forced labour.15 The Dutch
administration did not contact to village inhabitants directly and did not interfere
in the execution of cultivation. The colonial government left almost all aspects of
15
Frans van Baardewijk, 1994: 152.
9
coffee production in the indigenous hands both of peasant growers and local
heads, despite some efforts at modernization in the late of nineteenth century.
Coffee cultivation consequently remained outside the close supervision of the
administration. This was in str iking contrast to sugar cultivation, which was
scrupulously managed by colonial officials. 16 All regulations related to the coffee
cultivation, included the distribution of the burdens and other tasks, have been a
matter of the village administration. The local heads, ranging from the regents to
the village heads, were responsible to organize daily activities. Even between the
regent and the village heads, the two ends of the formal line of administration,
there was a range of “intermediary heads” who had a real influence on the
implementation of the colonial system of exploitation in this region.17
On their
hands the coffee cultivation to which required a lot of additional labour and land
was arranged. They designated areas for coffee planting, assembled labour, and
supervised cultivation and harvesting. 18 In the respect, the way in whi
ch
government cultivation were organized did not differ from that of corvee services
(heerendiensten), that is, the money unpaid services for all kinds of projects and
works for which the governments call up people.19
Little known which mode of coffee production firstly operated in Priangan
among the three: regular plantation, agro-forestry, and hedge and kampong coffee.
But, seemingly, hedgerow mode was the initial; thereafter the coffee cultivation
16
M.R. Fernando. 2003. “Coffee Cultivation in Java, 1830-1917“, in William Gervase ClaranceSmith and Steven Topik. Coffee Economy in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, 1500-1898.
Cambridge University Press, p. 158.
17
Frans van Baardewijk, 1994: 152.
18
W.G. Clarence-Smith. 1994. “The Impact of Forced Coffee Cultivation on Java, 1805-1917”, in
Indonesia Circle, No. 64, p. 245.
19
C. Fasseur, 1975: 29.
10
concentrated on the plantation system.20 These different kinds of production were
significant both for administration reasons and other regulations: workforces,
distribution of wage labour, transportation, and so on.21
Growing coffee in plantation located far away from villages was the most
onerous mode of operation for peasants, but the government preferred it, because
of its greater short-term productive capacity. The distance from village growers to
coffee plantations varied between 10, 20 and 34 paal. Therefore, coffee planters
had to build pangkalans or prataks (shelters) in the plantations, so they could stay
there in the times of preparing, harvesting and transporting. 22 To prepare coffee
plantations, people assigned were mobilized all together. They cleared land of
shrubs and large trees and ploughed, weeded, terraced, and fenced the cleared
land, before planting out. This preliminary work was normally carried out during
the dry season, but it continued into the early part of wet season. During this
initial phase, coffee-planting household were required to stay in temporary
shelters to save time and labour.23
Forest coffee was simple planted in suitable areas, usually involving only
the removal and burning of undergrowth before planting took place; thereafter the
crop sites required periodic weeding and clearing. Hedgerow coffee was similarly
uncomplicated, since it was generally cultivated in well-settled and established
environments in either house garden or small village plots which allowed great
participation in their maintenance, harvesting, and processing by women and
20
The change of orientation likely had begun since the last of 1840s.
Frans van Baardewijk, 1994: 158.
22
AV Priangan, 30/3, 1852, ANRI.
23
R.E. Elson, 1994: 65; M.R. Fernando, 2003: 166; Frans van Baardewijk, 1994: 160-167.
21
11
children. Little labour was needed for clearing the land, weeding was kept to a
minimum by the canopy of tall trees.24 Because much of the coffee classification
as hedgerow coffee was on reality grown in small plots to village, therefore, such
a mode known also as kampong coffee.
Among the three modes, which ones was the most popular within
Priangan? At least, based on the comparison of each mode along the nineteenth
century, there were different tendencies by each decade. In 1830s and early 1840s
hedgerow and forest coffee were very popular in Priangan; even by 1837 in
regencies of Bandung and Sumedang were more than fifty percent coffee trees in
hedgerow or kampong, and in regency Sukapura more than 63 percent in forest.
By 1839 the increasing number of coffee trees in hedgerow or kampong were
happened in three regencies of Bandung, Sumedang and Sukapura respectively
55.71%, 55,48%, and 53% (see Appendix 5.A).
In the beginning periods of 1850s, contrast to before, coffee cultivation
largely concentrated to plantation mode, even for 1857 – 1868 more than 80
percent as plantation coffee (TABLE 3). As comparison, in 1870 forest coffee was
very popular in Pasuruan; even, by 1875 some two-third of coffee in the crucial
area of Pasuruan was cultivated under this mode,25 while hedgerow coffee was
much practiced in Kedu and Banyumas. 26
24
R.E. Elson, 1994: 65-66; W.G. Clarence-Smith, 1994: 252.
Ibid.
26
Frans van Baardewijk, 1994: 167.
25
12
TABLE 3
83,14
82,35
80,51
80,97
90
84,17
TYPES OF COFFEE CULTIVATION IN PRIANGAN
(in % )
66,37
70
67,57
80
60
50
0,26
10,56
6,6
8,8
7,03
10,26
7,39
11,51
7,98
9,68
10
6,81
20
9,35
26,82
30
32,17
40
0
1854
1857
1860
Plantation
1863
Forest
1866
1868
1874
Hedgerow
* Calculation based on KV 1854, Bijlaag K, No. 12; KV 1857, Bijlage N, No. 12; KV 1860,
Bijlage O, No. 14; KV 1863, Bijlaag O, No. 17; KV 1866, Bijlage IJ, No. 26; KV 1869, Bijlage
EE, No. 3 CC; KV 1874, Bijlaag NN, No. 40.
In addition to the government coffee in Priangan developed also private
coffee plantations. Although much mentioned that private entrepreneurs began to
cultivate export crops by 1870s as consequence of introducing Liberal Policy, but
in case of Priangan the participation of private enterprises had already begun as
early as nineteenth century. Since first decade of nineteenth century coffee had
been cultivated in private lands, which was in Ujungberung (Regency Bandung),
Gunung Parang, and Ciputri (Regency Cianjur). In 1813 the private coffee
13
cultivation had begun to produce, although just contributed seven percent from
total production from throughout Priangan27 (TABLE 4).
TABLE 4
YIELDING COFFEE OF PRIANGAN, 1808-1821
(in pikul of 125 A.p.)
YEAR
1808
1809
1810
1811
1812
1813
1814
1815
1816
1817
1818
1819
1820
1821
TOTAL
Government Coffee
106.223,12
96.583,55
91.191,92
17.654,10
43.022,10
41.670,48
36.878,11
54.641,11
56.712,12
52.782,11
69.600,11
54.813,58
43.332,18
82.182,38
847.286,96
Ujungberung
256,38
287,28
854,10
886,30
694,85
782,12
1.185,81
1.144,77
1.904,50
7.996,11
Private Coffee
Gunung Parang
4.103,53
1.101,86
3.725,88
3.121,78
10.932,69
11.272,75
7.001,44
5.133,10
8.835,82
55.228,85
Ciputri
4,28
97,00
116,54
123,40
480,40
821,62
Source: A.V. Preanger 34/1, 1840, ANRI.
In the 1840s private coffee cultivation had increasingly boosted in all
regencies, except Tasikmalaya. More than 70 million coffee trees were cultivated
and in 1853 had produced 321,610 pikul. The Bandung Regency was the most
popular area of private coffee from where more than three-fourth trees and
product were from there.28 Then, in 1870s private coffee plantations both on
huur- en erfpacht lands were some of 58 plantations which had reached in large of
20,249 bahu spread in almost all afdeelingen in Priangan (TABLE 5).
27
28
AV Preanger 34/1, 1840, ANRI.
Archieve Minister van Kolonien, 1850-1900 (Inv. Nr. 27), 14 February 1856, ARA.
14
TABLE 5
PRIVATE COFFEE ENTERPRISES
ON HUUR-EN ERFPACHT LAND IN 1870s
AFDEELING
Bandung
Cicalengka
Cianjur
Sukabumi
Sumedang
Tasikmalaya
Total
Number
1
5
25
23
3
1
58
SIZE
(in bahu)
409
1,595
7,948
9,116
629
552
20,249
Source: K.F. van Delden Laerne, “Verslag over de Koffeecultuur in Amerika, Azie en Afrika”, in
Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indie. Negende deel. 1885,
pp. 539-540.
Some of the private coffee plantations which were most popular were
Sitiarja (Afdeeling Cicalengka), Calorama, and Cibungur (Afdeeling Sukabumi).
These three plantations since 1873 had begun to produce.29 In the same time the
government had opened the opportunity to the indigenous to open up coffee
plantations then known as vrijwillig, merdeka or manasuka tuinen
plantation). By 1874 reported in eight afdelingen
(free
of Priangan residency there
were 382 indigenous peasants who cultivate coffee in large of 4,729 bahu. 30
Labour
Coffee cultivation made demands on the work. How heavy a burden on the
shoulders of the planters was the work required? According to the calculation of
29
K.F. van Delden Laerne, “Verslag over de Koffeecultuur in Amerika, Azie en Afrika”, in
Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indie. Negende deel. 1885, pp.
539-540.
30
Koloniaal Verslag, 1875.
15
the Director of Cultivation, B.J. Elias, for a new plantation of 600 shrubs a planter
had to work 135 days a year for the first three years. The burden practically varied
in each region. 31 In Priangan the burden of coffee cultivation greatly varied among
the regencies as well among periods of time. In 1820s population engaged to
government’s forced coffee was just about 33.70 percent, to which was
responsible on average some of 534 trees of coffee.32 In 1830s the percentage of
population involved and the amount of trees had to have been maintained were
considerable increased to 62.74 percent and 1,275 trees in 1837 and to 64.36
percent and 1,092 trees in 1839, respectively. 33 By 1852 each household was
obliged to cultivate coffee of about 1000 shrubs and worked on average of 100
days per year.34 In 1852 some of 113,447 house holds in Priangan engaged in
forced coffee cultivation, more of 39,782 households than in 1837 (TABLE 6). By
1859 each households cultivated and maintained no more than 600 trees.35 By the
time of 1864 the household growers were 63,32 percent, each of them maintained
600 trees.36
31
For example, in Regency Galuh in 1857-1862, the regent R.A.A. Kusuma di Ningrat, calculated
that in his regency the work required to plant and maintain 500 shrubs according to administration
rules amounted to an average of 115 man-days a year (Frans van Baardewijk, 1994: 163); Elson
has collected widely varying estimates as to the number of days of labour performed in coffee
work by households, ranging from 53 days per year in Semarang in 1856 to 124 days in Tegal in
1865. In 1871 estimates ranged from 100 to 240 person-days. Households were usually allocated
600 trees in regular plantations and or forest, but this varied greatly. Enthusiastic officials in
Mojokerto had burdened their people with an average of 1,674 trees per households by 1837
(Elson, 1994: 65, 89, 205, 231; W.G. Clarence-Smith, 1994: 255).
32
Calculated from AV Preanger 29a/7, 1828, ANRI.
33
"Statistiek der Residentie Preanger Regentschappen 1837", Preanger 29a/1 1837, ANRI.; AV
Preanger 34/1, 1839, ANRI.
34
AV Preanger 30/3 1852, ANRI.
35
AV Preanger 5/1 1859, ANRI.
36
AV Preanger, 30/6, 1864, ANRI.
16
TABLE 6
HOUSEHOLDS ENGAGED IN FORCED COFFEE CULTIVATION
REGENCY
Cinjur
Bandung
Sumedang
Sukapura
Limbangan
Total
1836/37
29,716
30,749
4,208
6,789
2,203
73,665
1852
30,029
37,493
33,119
6,456
6,350
113,447
Sources: Preanger Statistiek, Preanger 7/1 1839; AV Preanger 30/3 1852, ANRI.
Decreasing of both peasant growers and the number of government’s
coffee trees in throughout Priangan likely had already seemed since 1850s. The
drastically decreased of coffee trees had happened in 1870s, so that in 1874 a
household just maintained government coffee on average of 220 trees. From 1876
onwards the number of government coffee gradually increased again (TABLE 7).
TABEL 7
HOUSEHOLDS OF COFFEE GROWERS IN PLANTATION AND FOREST
Households of
coffee growers
1854
90,845
1857
84,195
1860
89,801
1863
85,042
1866
87,146
1868
91,223
1874
121,054
1876/77
117,062
1880
118,515
1882
128,072
1885
92,363
1888
87,825
1893
71,621
1897
75,657
* n.d. = no data
YEAR
Number of
coffee trees
64,712,369
56,729,964
44,789,254
40,168,440
39,660,814
37,801,110
26,594,008
30,950,994
37,140,656
42,116,671
n.d.*
70,396,038
92,711,198
67,654,442
Coffee trees
per household
712
674
498
472
455
414
220
264
313
456
n.d.*
802
1294
894
Sources: KV 1854, Bijlaag K, No. 12; KV 1857, Bijlage N, No. 12; KV 1860, Bijlage O, No. 14;
KV 1863, Bijlaag O, No. 17; KV 1866, Bijlage IJ, No. 26; KV 1869, Bijlage EE, No. 3 CC. KV
1874, Bijlaag NN, No. 40; KV 1877, Bijlaag M, No. 40; KV 1881, Bijlage UU, No. 47. KV 1883,
Bijlage CCC, No. 55; KV 1886, Bijlage VV, No. 47; KV 1889, Bijlage UU, No. 47; KV 1894
Bijlage ZZ, No. 52; KV 1898, Bijlage SS, No. 45.
17
Crop Payment
Instrument to stimulate the indigenous planters to grow coffee and to
increase production was by means of crop payments; whereas to increase the
involvements of local heads and European administration was applying the
notorious cultivation percentage which gave officials a direct financial interest.
Theoretically,
peasants’
response
to
coffee
cultivation
woul
d be
increasingly depended on the payment for their crop and work; while the local
crop payment followed the fluctuation of world coffee price. Such a theory did not
always happen in Priangan. Although Priangan peasants were disinclined to
undertake work that did not bring them adequate financial rewards, they could not
give up coffee plantation, because it was a compulsory crop. Therefore, the
member of households forced to cultivate coffee rose until it amounted to nearly
60 percent of all peasant households across Java throughout the middle decades of
the nineteenth century. West Java in which Priangan had been a core region had
more coffee growers than Central and East Java (TABLE 8).37
Peasants households’ enthusiasm for coffee, really, somewhat waned when
it brought little money; however, there was sill other reason of enthusiasm of
peasants to grow coffee that was correlated to the level need of ready money. To
raise their money income, they found it on coffee. Coffee was for a time a
reasonably source of cash, notably, for people who could grow it on a small scale
in forest and hedge or kampong near their homes.
37
M.R. Fernando, 2003: 169.
18
TABLE 8
HOUSEHOLDS OF FORCED COFFEE CULTIVATION 1830-1870
REGION
West Java
Central
Java
East
Java
Java
PEASANT HOUSHOLDS
Number peasant households
% all peasant households
Number peasant households
% all peasant households
Number peasant households
% all peasant households
Number peasant households
% all peasant households
1836
159,689
65
148,496
32
97,560
27
405,745
38
1840
161,422
57
192,361
40
111,101
30
464,884
41
1850
134,521
45
153,093
39
113,606
27
401,220
36
1870
139,857
47
192,834
31
133,516
27
466,207
33
Source: M.R. Fernando, “Coffee Cultivation in Java, 1830-1917“, in William Gervase ClaranceSmith and Steven Topik. 2003. Coffee Economy in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, 1500-1898.
Cambridge University Press, p. 171.
There were three tendencies of coffee price development in this residency.
In the eighteenth century that was early periods when coffee cultivation
introduced the price of coffee clearly tended to follow world market. Thereafter,
in the nineteenth century the government purchased coffee in very lower fixed
price. Three decades towards the end of the nineteenth century onwards the
government began to increase somewhat higher than before. And, in really, the
fluctuation of payment had no a positive correlation to the expansion of trees and
product, because of the forced nature of coffee cultivation. When the fluctuation
of product happened, that was not caused by the fluctuation of purchasing price,
but rather due to natural factors, such as on the weather that was to have been
either too dry or too wet.
In 1711 when the regent of Cianjur, Aria Wiratnu, offered the first
consignment of coffee to the VOC, he requested that a price be fixed, and this was
done to eight heavy (or in Asian valuation, ten light) stuiver per pond. According
19
to the letter of 23 July 1711, the Heeren XVII (VOC directorate) would have been
prepared to pay up to eight or even fifteen stuivers per pond. For a time, however,
supplies remained negligible, at most a few thousand pounds. Such a high price
seemingly attracted to the Priangan peasantry, so that towards the end of 1720 the
production of coffee reached 100,000 ponds. By 1724 the enormous expansion of
production in Priangan appeared an anxiety to the Heeren XVII in the Netherlands
and the High Government in Batavia about overproduction. The anxiety was in
really happened, not long after that coffee price on the European market
stagnated; in the Netherlands it self was just f 1.00 per pond (TABLE 9).
TABLE 9
COFFEE PRICES IN THE NETHERLANDS
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
YEAR
1720-29
1730-39
1740-49
1750-59
1760-69
1770-79
1780-89
1790-99
1800-09
GUILDER/
POND
0.89
0.68
0.57
0.58
0.53
0.49
0.50
0.82
1.03
Source: David Bulbeck et al. 1998. Southeast Asian Exports since the 14th
Cloves, Pepper, Coffee, and Sugar. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian
Studies, p. 175.
Therefore, the Heeren XVII insisted on a price reduction. In 1725 the High
Government in Batavia reduced prices for West Priangan coffee from twenty to
20
nine rixdollars for a pikul of 125 ponds; prices for East Priangan coffee were
reduced to ten rixdollars a pikul. On 15 January 1726 a definite decision about
prices was taken in Batavia, each pikul from Priangan would be worth five
rixdollars. This meant a price of coffee only two and half stuivers per pond38.
Although the price of coffee in Java, excluded Priangan, was higher than that of
coffee in Priangan, but it remained to indicate the similar tendency. Table 5.10
demonstrates that from 1720 to 1767 the price steadily decreased, and from 1769
until the end of the century seemed the fixed price worth 8.9 rixdollars per pikul.
TABLE 10
COFFEE PRICES PAID BY VOC IN JAVA
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
YEAR
1720
1727
1733
1735
1740s
1754
1756
1759
1761
1767
RIXDOLLARS
PER PIKUL
20.5
5.0
7.0
7.0
n.d.
12.1
13.2
13.2
13.2
12.1
YEAR
1769
1770
1772
1775
1778
1786
1787
1790
1791
1792
RIXDOLLARS
PER PIKUL
8.9
8.9
8.9
8.9
8.9
8.9
9.6
8.9
8.9
8.9
Source: David Bulbeck et al. 1998. Southeast Asian Exports since the 14th
Cloves, Pepper, Coffee, and Sugar. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian
Studies, p. 168.
The other reasons to implement the price reduction were of a security feed,
financial, and political nature. In the early days of Priangan coffee, when the VOC
paid a good price, the response was good. The cultivators were said to be
38
G.J. Knaap, 1986: 41.
21
delighted at the unfamiliar experience of earning money, and it was even feared
that they might neglect to grow rice, because they could maintain themselves with
less effort and more profit by coffee. When, however, in 1726 the government at
Batavia, lacking specie and hearing that some regents were using the money to
buy fire-arm, drastically reduced the price.39 Moreover, the Heeren XVII feared
that in the end Priangan might hold a monopoly in the production of coffee. A
monopoly such as this would secure the considerable revenue of the Priangan
producers. West Priangan, for example, in 1725 produced over 3,150,000 ponds
and east Priangan produced 650,000 ponds would received about f.733,000 and
280,000 respectively. As a consequence, these regions might become importance
centre of political power. The rise of such centres of power so close to Batavia
was to be prevented.40
Respond to the price reduction within Priangan was not felt equally
everywhere. The production in East Priangan even increased. In 1730 East
Priangan was to produce nearly as much as the western.41 The indigenous
population of Priangan, however, continued cultivation, although the returns for
the producers were seldom attractive either. In the year 1729 – 1730, even
thousands new trees were planted in Central Priangan.42 In West Java, generally,
by the second half of eighteenth century the coffee product delivered to the
39
H.R.C. Wright. 1961. East-Indian Economic Problems of the Age of Cornwallis and Raffles,
London: Luzac and Company, p. 27.
40
G.J. Knaap, 1986: 41.
41
Ibid., p. 43.
42
Ibid.
22
government storehouses even increased, although the price was no more than f.
2.42 per pikul43 (see GRAPH A.1).
6000
GRAPHIC A.1
COFFEE DELIVERIES OF WEST JAVA 1745-1794
(in ton)
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
1755
1760
1765
1770
1775
1780
1785
1790
1795
1800
The chart is based on the Creutzberg’s statistical data of the CEI vol. I (see also Stevens, 1982:
155)
Until the first three decades of nineteenth century the compulsory coffee
cultivation which subjected to monopoly was just prevailed within Priangan. The
obligation to deliver coffee to the government was imposed on the people of other
residencies by 1833 when the Governor General issued a resolution of 3 February
(Indische Staatsblad. 1833, no. 7). Before this time, peasants of other residencies
maintained coffee plantations and they had been free to dispose as they wished of
43
Henri Charles van Marten. 1887. Overzicht van de hervormin van het Preanger-Stelsel, Leiden:
J.J. Groen, p. 26.
23
the product. As a consequence, most their coffee sold to private buyers.
44
Van
den Bosch, however, did not include coffee cultivation as early as the cultivation
system operated. There were, at least, three reasons to explain it. First, prices of
coffee were low in the 1830s. Second, he wished to eliminate the suggestion that
his new policies in Java were just based on compulsory. Third, there was no
immediate advantage in aligning coffee cultivation with his policies. 45
Within this period there were three categories of coffee price policy in
which closely related to the obligation of land rent levying to the government. The
three categories were represented in three modes of residencies in which the
differences of levying land rent operated, namely, Priangan residency, residencies
of Madiun, Kediri, Pacitan, Banyuwangi, and the rests.
Coffee prices in Priangan until 1873 were considerably lower and always
below the standard level, because in this residency no land rent on non-coffee
land was collected by the Dutch, but special taxes was due to the local heads, the
amount of which is accurately not known.46 There is no official reason why the
land rent system was not introduced in Priangan residency. It might be, perhaps,
because people in this residency have too few means and resources to be subjected
to a regular monetary tax as happens in the coastal residencies; but more likely
because of fears of tinkering with the lucrative Priangan coffee system. 47 Before
44
C. Fasseur, 1975: 36.
R.E. Elson, 1994: 63.
46
Frans van Baarderwijk, 1993. ”The Cultivation System, Java 1834-1880“, in Changing
Economy in Indonesia, Volume 14. Amsterdam: Royal Tropical Institut, p. 13-19; W.G. ClarenceSmith, 1994: 246.
47
R.E. Elson, 1994: 47.
45
24
1837, for instance, the crop payment was just about f. 2.42 to f.2.92 ½ per pikul,48
whereas in Surakarta and Yogyakarta f. 18.33 and rest of Java f. 10.00.49
Van den Bosch by means of a resolution of 3 February 1833 wished a
highly advantage from a minimum price for coffee to which it related to tax
burden. His original intention was that every kind of land rent should be deducted
from coffee payments. Such a form prevailed only in rather remote and backward
areas like Pacitan, Madiun, Kediri and Banyuwangi. Peasants in these residencies
had to plant a relatively large number of coffee trees per household. They also
received less money for their coffee than in other residencies, on the grounds that
land rent for every category of land was deducted from coffee payment. In1837,
for example, when in Priangan was about f. 3.13 per pikul, in Pacitan, Madiun,
and Kediri were f. 6.25; and it lowered to f. 5.21 per pikul in 1844. Over the long
term, their income might have been larger if they had received a higher payment
for their coffee land, and then paid land rent on non-coffee land separately.50 In
Madiun, Pacitan, and Kediri such policy put an end in 1859; and in Banyuwangi
in 1873.
In all other residencies subjected to forced cultivation, payments of coffee
were meant to reflect market price in Batavia, which at that time was fixed at f
25.00 per pikul of 125 ponds. From that of per pikul price the government,
however, deducted a 40% in respect to land rent owed specifically for coffee
48
Henri Charles van Marten , 1887: 26.; C. Fasseur, 1975: 38.
K.F. van Delden Laerne, “Verslag over de Koffeecultuur in Amerika, Azie en Afrika”, in
Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indie. Negende deel. 1885, pp.
536-537.
50
K.F. van Delden Laerne, 1885: 536-37.; Cf. W.G. Clarence-Smith, 1994: 246; C. Fasseur, 1975:
36.
49
25
lands;51 and, furthermore, took a sum of f 3.00 for the cost of transporting coffee
from the storehouses in the interior to the storehouses on the coast; in addition, the
government from fear of being short-changed in deliveries, still took on every
pikul of coffee 2%. Consequently, the grower actually received less than half of
the officially fixed price, namely f. 12 per pikul.52 Therefore, the adjustment to
market prices such as meant in the resolution did not happen in practice. As a
comparison of coffee price across Java it could be seen on the graph A.2.
Generally, it can be said that coffee payment was paid below world
market prices, and hence the government obtained a high profit margin from
selling them in the Netherlands. The new policy financially successful beyond the
expectations of Dutch politicians, and it remained in place until 1870s. At this
point, its basic principle came to be politically unacceptable, and they were
replaced by a set of liberal di eas. However, compulsion in the coffee sector
prevailed on much longer than for other crops.53
Indeed, by 1870 a set of new economic opportunities opened up and world
coffee prices rose ever higher. Although it influenced to higher purchasing price
of peasants coffee, however, the fixed price of government coffee remained
increasingly unrealistic. In 1870, producers received f.13.00 per pikul, when the
average auction price in Java was f.33.00. In 1874 the price in Amsterdam auction
was almost f.64.00, compared to f.14.00 received by growers.54
51
And land rent for non-coffee lands was assessed for the whole village, usually as a fixed
proportion of the rice harvest, and was paid in a quite separate transaction.
52
C. Fasseur, 1975: 36-37; R.E. Elson, 1994: 63; W.G. Clarence-Smith, 1994: 247.
53
R.M. Fernando, 2003: 160.
54
W.G. Clarence-Smith, 1994: 248.
26
GRAPH A.2
COFFEE PRICE IN JAVA AND THE NETHERLANDS
IN THE 19th CENTURY
70
60
Surakarta en
Jogjakarta
n
e
d
lu
g
n
i
50
40
Pacitan, Madiun,
Kediri
PreangerRegentschappen
30
20
10
0
1820
Overige gewesten
van Java
Prijs in Nederland
1840
1860
1880
1900
years
The chart is based on the data of K.F. van Delden Laerne’s table on the “Verslag over de
Koffeecultuur in Amerika, Azie en Afrika”, in Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van
Nederlandsch Indie. Negende deel. 1885, pp. 536-537.
Cultivation Percentage
The other effective means to speed development and to make officials
cooperate in the introduction and expansion of government cultivations, besides
crop payment, was the cultivation percentage; that is the government granted
incentive payments both to European and local heads in proportion to the amount
of coffee, indigo, and so on produced in the residency or area of their
administrative function.55 The higher the production is the higher the cultivation
55
C. Fasseur, 1975: 44; R.E. Elson,1994: 182.
27
percentage. For those who served faithfully, the rewards could be substantial;
sometimes these payments were greater than official income.
Therefore, indeed, could be said that cultivation percentage had double
functions. In one side, as we know that the implementation of coffee cultivation in
Priangan was almost completely in the hands of indigenous heads, for which they
did not receive salary from the government treasury; because of no land rent was
levied from this residency. Alternatively, these percentages were the only source
of their income, as a compensation of no salary from the government treasury. In
the other side, these percentages could encourage the officials to boost plantation
and production.
The cultivation percentage was practiced within Priangan, at least, as early
as period of Dutch colonial administration. The payment of coffee percentage to
regents and lesser chiefs in Priangan was regulated in a decree of 1808.56 In 17
March 1810 Daendels decided the tariff and nine indigenous officials who were
entitled to these percentages and the tariff (TABLE 11).
56
C. Faseur, 1975: 248..
28
TABLE 11
PERCENTAGE OF COFFEE IN PRIANGAN (1810)
Regent
Patih
Two Ngabehis
Cutak/district heads
Two Commissioners
Mandors of cutak
Camat
Secretary
Lengser
12 stuivers of each pikul coffee of 126/128 A.p.
1 stuiver for all delivering of coffee of regency
1 stuiver for all delivery of coffee of regency
4 stuivers for delivering of each cutak
2 stuivers for delivering of each cutak
2 stuivers for delivering of each cutak
1 stuiver for delivering of his cutak
½ stuiver for all delivering
½ stuiver for all delivering
Source: Van der Chijs, J.A. 1897. Nederlandsch-Indisch Plakaatboek, 1602-1811.
Zestiende deel 1810-1811. Batavia-’s Hage: Landsdrukkerij-M.Nijhoff. pp. 133-134.
In addition, the government in 17 June 1811 appointed nine controllers of
coffee cultivation, whom the percentages were also paid. These nine controllers
were
in
Buitenzorg,
Cianjur,
uSkaraja,
Rongga,
Bandung,
Tarogong,
Parakanmuncang, Sukapura and Sumedang. Each received some 12 stuivers for
delivering of a pikul of 126/128 ponds plus yearly income between 1,500 – 2000
rixdollars of silver money.57 In the period of the Cultivation System Van den
Bosch more supported that the implementation of cultivation percentage; even it
was not only to indigenous heads but also European officials; and it was in effect
to other residencies. He had thought the introduction of cultivation percentage was
fair because government cultivations, certainly in the beginning, caused the
officials concerned a lot of extra work.58
By 1836 for delivering coffee of minimum 90,000 pikul, the officials of
Priangan enjoyed the percentage as follows:
57
Van der Chijs, J.A. 1897. Nedrlandsch-Indisch Plakaatboek, 1602-1811. Zestiende deel 18101811. Batavia-’s Hage: Landsdrukkerij-M.Nijhoff. pp. 591-594.
58
C. Fasseur, 1975: 248.
29
TABLE 4.12
TARIFF OF THE COFFEE PERCENTAGE IN PRIANGAN (1836)
Level of officials
Regent
Minor heads59
Resident
Assistant Resident
Controller
Cultivation Percentage
for each pikul of 125 ponds
f. 1.20
48 cents
6 cents
6 cents
6 cents
Source: “Statistiek der residentie Preanger Regentschappen 1837”, Preanger 29a/1 1837, ANRI
Total coffee percentage they received in 1836 was f.205,487.70 (TABLE
13). Until 1850s and 1860s the number of officials enjoyed cultivation percentage
and the tariff remained stable; and the total earnings of percentage of every year
was not always same, but depended on the number of coffee production levied to
the government’s storehouses. There were great differences in the cultivation
percentage paid among regents and lesser chiefs in Java. During the periods of
1858-60s, as comparison, the four regents in Banten received annually on average
less than f.2,500, but the five regents of neighbouring Priangan regencies received
no less than f.90,000, or 36 times as much. The five regents in Surabaya received
59
The minor heads included and their tariff (in cent) were:
1. patih
:
3.50
2. head mantri
:
1.00
3. kaliwon
:
1.00
4. secretary
:
0.50
5. head of jongol
:
0.50
6. commissionaire
:
5.00
7. head of district
:
16.00
8. camat
:
3.50
9. secretary of district
:
1.50
10. lengser of district
:
1.00
11. patinggi
:
4.00
12. mandor of coffee plantation :
6.00
13. head of village
:
2.50
14. priayi
:
2.00
Source: “Statistiek der residentie Preanger Regentschappen 1837”, Preanger 29a/1 1837, ANRI.
30
f. 26,000 per year; the three regents in Pasuruan received f. 38,000, and three four
regents in Rembang f. 3,600.60
TABLE 13
COFFEE PERCENTAGE IN PRIANGAN (1836)
LEVEL OF
OFFICIALS
Five Regents
Minor heads
Resident
Assistant Resident
Controller class I
Controller class II
Total
CULTIVATION
PERCENTAGE
FOR EACH PIKUL OF
125 PONDS (in f.)
128,757.83
73,103.09
933.81
933.81
933.81
825.35
205,487.70
Source: “Statistiek der residentie Preanger Regentschappen 1837”, Preanger 29a/1 1837, ANRI.
60
C. Fasseur, 1975: 248.
31
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I.
Archieves:
Algemeene Verslag van Preanger-Regentschappen Preanger 29a/7, 1828, ANRI.
Algemeene Verslag van Preanger-Regentschappen Priangan, 29a/19, 1932.
Algemeene Verslag van Preanger-Regentschappen Preanger, 2/7, 1935.
Algemeene Verslag van Preanger-Regentschappen Preanger 36/3, 1835.
Algemeene Verslag van Preanger-Regentschappen Preanger 7/1, 1837.
Algemeene Verslag van Preanger-Regentschappen Preanger 34/1, 1839.
Algemeene Verslag van Preanger-Regentschappen Preanger 34/1, 1840, ANRI.
Algemeene Verslag van Preanger-Regentschappen Preanger 30/3 1852, ANRI.
Algemeene Verslag van Preanger-Regentschappen Preanger 5/1 1859, ANRI
Algemeene Verslag van Preanger-Regentschappen Preanger, 30/6, 1864, ANRI.
Archieve Minister van Kolonien, 1850-1900 (Inv. Nr. 27), 14 February 1856,
ARA.
Preanger Statistiek 1836,
“Statistiek der residentie Preanger Regentschappen 1837”, Preanger 29a/1 1837, ANRI.
Preanger Statistiek, Preanger 7/1 1839.
II.
Printed Documents:
Koloniaal Verslag 1854, Bijlaag K, No. 12.
Koloniaal Verslag 1857, Bijlage N, No. 12.
Koloniaal Verslag 1860, Bijlage O, No. 14.
Koloniaal Verslag 1863, Bijlaag O, No. 17.
Koloniaal Verslag 1866, Bijlage IJ, No. 26.
Koloniaal Verslag 1869, Bijlage EE, No. 3 CC.
Koloniaal Verslag 1874, Bijlaag NN, No. 40.
Koloniaal Verslag, 1875.
Koloniaal Verslag 1866, Bijlage IJ, No. 26.
Koloniaal Verslag 1881, Bijlage UU, No. 47.
Koloniaal Verslag 1883, Bijlage CCC, No. 55.
Koloniaal Verslag 1886, Bijlage VV, No. 47.
Koloniaal Verslag 1889, Bijlage UU, No. 47.
Koloniaal Verslag 1894 Bijlage ZZ, No. 52.
Koloniaal Verslag 1898, Bijlage SS, No. 45.
III.
Books, Articles:
van Baarderwijk, Frans 1993. ”The Cultivation System, Java 1834-1880“, in
Changing Economy in Indonesia, Volume 14. Amsterdam: Royal Tropical
Institut.
32
van Baardewijk, Frans. 1994. “Rural Response to Intensifying Colonial
Exploitation; Coffee, State and Society in Central and East Java, 18301880“, in G.J. Schutte. State and Trade in the Indonesian Archipelago.
Leiden: KITLV Press.
Bulbeck, David et al. (comp.). 1998. Southeast Asian Exports since the 14th
Cloves, Pepper, Coffee, and Sugar. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian
Studies.
van der Chijs, J.A.. 1897. Nedrlandsch-Indisch Plakaatboek, 1602-1811.
Zestiende deel 1810-1811. Batavia-’s Hage: Landsdrukkerij-M.Nijhoff.
Clarence-Smith, W.G.. 1994. “The Impact of Forced Coffee Cultivation on Java,
1805-1917”, in Indonesia Circle, No. 64.
Fasseur, C. 1975. The Politics of Colonial Exploitation in Java; the Dutch and the
Cultivation System. SEAP: Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
Fernando, M.R.. 2003. “Coffee Cultivation in Java, 1830-1917“, in William
Gervase Clarance-Smith and Steven Topik. Coffee Economy in Africa,
Asia, and Latin America, 1500-1898. Cambridge University Press.
de Klein, Jacob Worter. 1931. Het Preanger-stelsel (1677-1871) en Zijn
Nawerking (Doctor diss., Leiden). Delf: J. Waltman Jr.
Knaap, G.J.. 1986. ”Coffee for Cash; the Dutch East I
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
by
Mumuh Muhsin Zakaria
(Universitas Padjadjaran)
The course of Priangan history during almost two centuries, in the VOC and
Dutch colonial period, was nearly identical to
coffee cultivation. The
consideration based on that Priangan was temporally the first region in Java where
coffee cultivation introduced; then quantitatively coffee cultivation of Priangan
engaged the number of man power and large of land extensively, so that
consequently the product of coffee from this residency was always the highest
than the other residencies throughout Java. Besides, in favour of coffee
cultivation, within residency was operated very long aged system then known as
Preangerstelsel from 1677 until 1870.1
The significance of Priangan coffee to Dutch treasury could be illustrated
as follows. Around 1726 the VOC accounted for about 50 percent to 75 percent of
the world coffee trade. Of the total turnover of the VOC, which was over
4,000,000 pounds, approximately over 75 percent was produced in Priangan.2
Further evidence, in the first half of the nineteenth century for Dutch exchequer,
coffee had always been the product on which the greatest profit was made. For
1
Jacob Worter de Klein. 1931. Het Preanger-stelsel (1677-1871) en zijn nawerking (Doctor diss.,
Leiden). Delf: J. Waltman Jr.
2
G.J. Knaap. 1986. ”Coffee for Cash; the Dutch East India Company and the Expansion of Coffee
Cultivation in Java, Ambon and Cylon 1700-1730“ in J. van Gor ed. Trading companies in Asia
1600-1830. Utrecht: Hes Uitgevers, p. 34.
1
2
example, between 1840 and 1849 alone was obtained about 65 million guilders
compared with 15 million for indigo. Sugar did not become profitable until after
1845. The highest contributor for coffee production was Priangan. 3 As the main
producer of coffee, the position of Priangan had been first replaced by Pasuruan in
the beginning of 1860s,4 but the Priangan Residency remained a bulwark of the
coffee system.
Initially coffee was introduced by the VOC to Priangan in the early of
eighteenth century. The first coffee was planted in 1707. The motivation that
encourage the VOC to plant coffee in its controlled region was highly connected
to the global competition of world coffee market. Towards the end of the
seventeenth century the demand for coffee in Europe was rising. To respond the
need of coffee in the European market the VOC bought it from Yemen in amount
which was increased steadily. For instance, around 1695 of 300,000 to 400,000
ponds, around 1707 of 500,000 ponds, from 1715 onwards almost 1,500,000
ponds.5 The buyers of Yemen coffee were, of course, not only the VOC, but also
from other countries such as British, Turkey, and so on. Consequently, the rivalry
happened and strengthened, and, in turn, the cost price started to rise considerably,
so the margin obtained was little. Therefore, to replace the position of Yemen, the
VOC made an effort to seek an alternative region where could have been a place
to product much of coffee.
3
C. Fasseur. 1975. The Politics of Colonial Exploitation in Java; the Dutch and the Cultivation
System. SEAP: Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, p. 36.
4
For detailed figure of coffee production by 1854-1870 in Javanese Residencies see R.E. Elson.
1994. Village Java under the Cultivation System 1830-1870. Sydney: ASAA and Allen and
Unwin, p. 139.
5
G.J. Knaap, 1986: 36.
3
In 1723 reported that in the Priangan residency there were approximately
2,141,000 coffee trees from which 1,041,000 were fruit bearing. In western
Priangan the population had started cultivation on their own lands on a large scale,
and east and centre Priangan were to follow this example very soon. Therefore,
around 1725 surprisely, Priangan coffee had surpassed Yemen as the principle
centre of coffee production from which the VOC purchased it.6
The question, then, appears is how the cultivation system of coffee in
Priangan operated, so that was stable relatively, at least, until the half fist of the
nineteenth century. The successful of coffee cultivation really related to some
factors, among others were the suitable land, available man power, crop payment,
cultivation percentage, and supervision. Such factors could be categorized into
four board variables that are ecology, organization of production, and labour.
Ecology and Soil
For the successful of coffee plantation the first factor was naturally the
suitability of the soil. In principle coffee plantation were laid out on virgin lands
relatively far from the villages, so that, unlike sugar, these planting did not occupy
6
Ibid. As comparison, coffee purchased by the VOC from Yemen and Priangan from 1722 to 1728
could be seen the followed table (production in ton):
Year
Yemen
Priangan
1722
832
6
1723
427
36
1724
399
663
1725
228
1,264
1726
277
2,145
1727
264
2,076
1728
0
2,021
See David Bulbeck et al. (comp.). 1998. Southeast Asian Exports since the 14th Cloves, Pepper,
Coffee, and Sugar. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, p. 144.
4
farming land intended for food production. The altitude was just as important as
the soil; ideally between 1,000 and 4,000 feet. Beneath the level the shrub was
able to grow but needs grow even better, hence lower altitudes meant a lot of
maintenance. The agriculture chemist P.F.H. Fronberg believed that the
cultivation of coffee below 1,000 feet should be forbidden. About 4,000 feet the
coffee shrub would remain productive longer and could grow much older that at
lower level, but the yield per shrub was much less.7 So, the better results are
usually obtained in higher situated areas.
Coffee plantation was usually situated in the hilly lower ranges of
mountain slopes. The landscape of Priangan is fortunately dominated by mountain
ranges and high plains. The high mountain ranges in Priangan gave the plantation
relatively good protection against the strong sea winds. Moreover, in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the condition of soil would have been quite
suitable for coffee. Priangan which was not yet a densely populated territory must
have had a very considerable area of uncultivated land. Coffee particularly well on
soil newly reclaimed from primary forest.8
Therefore, it is understandable when within the Cultivation Reports have
never stated how many bouw9 of land were assigned for the cultivation of coffee
that was contrast with the data provided for sugar and indigo cultivation.10 For the
7
Frans van Baardewijk. 1994. “Rural response to intensifying colonial exploitation; coffee, state
and society in Central and East Java, 1830-1880“, in G.J. Schutte. State and Trade in the
Indonesian Archipelago. Leiden: KITLV Press, p. 161.
8
G.J. Knaap, 1986: 44.
9
Bouw is a unit of traditional large measurement equal to 500 Rijn roeden2 or 7096,5 m2 or
1,7587 acre (Engl. measure); see Anon. 1914. Maten en Gewichten van Nederlandsch Oost-Indie
(handboek voor cultuur en handels-ondernemingen in nederlandsch indie).
10
C. Fasseur, 1975: 28.
5
cultivation of coffee, unused or waste land (woeste gronden) was gradually
employed, whereas sugar and indigo cultivation took place in the densely
populated lowlands. Such a situation, in turn, appeared a considerable difference
between coffee cultivation and sugar cultivation both in agrarian and social
implications. Coffee was not grown in symbiosis with rice, but rather on virgin
land, even often located far from the village. Thus, officially coffee was grown
alongside other foods and commercial crops. In the other side, the cultivation of
coffee was also far simpler in organization than that of sugar. The role of the
village elite was more restricted and this reduced their chances at strengthening
themselves politically and economically. It seems that coffee cultivation did not
lead to the drastic changes in the distribution of land-ownership and income which
apparently were so typical of the sugar growing areas. Besides, there was hardly
any ruled for additional labour, hence it offered the landless peasants no new job
opportunities. Then, coercion certainly played a role in rising coffee production,
but in the long run, in many districts coercion was not a decisive factor. There the
economic significance of coffee cultivation to the planters themselves determined
its destiny. 11 For the nineteenth century control over labour was more crucial than
control over land; for the later seemed in oversupply, whereas the former, if not in
short supply, was difficult to manage and exploit.12
Within Priangan residency itself, the suitable land for coffee cultivation
was not similar. The western Priangan was the principal area of production then
followed by the eastern Priangan, as well among the regencies within the eastern
11
12
Frans van Baardewijk, 1994:153.
Ibid.
6
one. For example, regencies of Bandung and Cianjur were more productive than
Parakanmuncang and Sumedang. Therefore, in the early of nineteenth century, in
the period of Daendels, the grouping of regency to which one grouped was based
on the fairly similar production of coffee as consideration. Daendels, for instance,
at 20 June 1810, divided Priangan into two groups: firstly, regencies of Cianjur,
Bandung,
Parakanmuncang, and Sumedang entered to Jacatra (now, Jakarta),
then named “Landdrost-ambt der Jacatrasche en Preanger
bovenlanden”;
secondly, regencies of Sukapura, Limbangan, and Galuh entered to Cheribon, then
named “Landdrost-ambt den Cheribonsche Preanger-regentschappen”.13 In the
other side, Daendels stated a policy that the carrier and conduit of a regent based
on the successful of coffee production of his regency. Even Daendels could
whenever retire a regent who was not success in coffee cultivation. Such a case
happened to the regents of Sukapura and Galuh. 14
Although the widespread obligation to expand coffee trees and to increase
product had already persisted, even, since the VOC period, but the regional impact
of forced coffee was uneven. The difference amount of total trees and production
among the regencies within Priangan residencies might have been among others
caused by the difference altitude of each regency and the level of suitability and
fertility. As a concrete illustration of these differences could be seen the figure of
coffee trees in each regency within Priangan in the periods of 1832 – 1864
13
Then at 2nd March 1811 Daendels reformed Priangan, that was regencies of Limbangan and
Sukapura which before were in Landdrost-ambt den Cheribonsche Preanger-regentschappen to
have been a part of the Landdrost-ambt der Jacatrasche en Preanger bovenlanden; and the latter
named Landdrost-ambt der Jacatrasche en den Cheribonsche Preanger regentschappen. See J.A.
van der Chijs. 1897. Nedrlandsch-Indisch Plakaatboek, 1602-1811. Zestiende deel 1810-1811.
Batavia-’s Hage: Landsdrukkerij-M.Nijhoff, pp. 234-235 and 591-235.
14
J.A. van der Chijs. Ibid.
7
(TABLE 1) that shows the shifting size of coffee cultivation within Priangan as a
whole and the different development within each regency, although late 1830s
was top.
TABLE 1
COFFEE TREES IN PRIANGAN (1832-1864)
REGENCY
Cianjur
Bandung
Sumedang
Limbangan
Sukapura
Total
1832
13,017,006
15,942,158
9,971,177
5,965,989
375,000
45,271,331
1835
TOTAL TREES
1836
19,180,432
30,020,550
17,736,760
8,045,155
6,225,670
81,208,567
24,202,804
30,247,200
18,587,093
10,245,845
10,678,612
93,961,554
1839
24,488,406
29,398,100
8,598,230
18,979,676
5,627,097
87,091,509
1864
13,619,303
20,041,750
10,100,360
5,252,983
2,005,337
51,019,733
Sources: AV Preanger, 29a/19, 1932; AVPreanger 36/3, 1835; AV Preanger, 2/7, 1935; Preanger
Statistiek 1836, AV Preanger 7/1, 1837; AV Preanger 34/1, 1839; AV Preanger 30/6, 1864.
Parallel to the differences of amount of coffee trees, from which clearly
seem that Bandung was the most, then followed by Cianjur, Sumedang,
Limbangan, and Sukapura, the similar situation happened on the differences of
amount of product (TABLE 2). Possible reasons behind it were natural and
structural factors. The fist factor meant that the southern regencies were not so
suitable for coffee; and the second factor meant that the regencies were located far
from central government of Residency, so the supervision of coffee cultivation
was not as intense as Regencies closed to central of Residency.
8
TABLE 2
COMPARISON OF COFFE PRODUCTION IN PRIANGAN (1820-1835)
(in pikul of 125 pond Amsterdam)
YEAR Cianjur
1820 10487
1821 18014
1822 24837
1823 18269
1824 18512
1825 48515
1826 24770
1827 50726
1828 42109
1829 18839
1830 18748
1831 10683
1832 11543
1833 12321
1834 46711
1835 16116
Bandung
17311
28521
26931
24767
23172
22139
24473
30448
23139
25562
22084
17723
22328
33290
74428
46228
REGENCIES OF
Sumedang
Limbangan
5917
18262
17542
11295
13890
21931
16278
23514
15328
10398
11693
5812
9560
9347
20122
7936
4570
16610
17264
12374
10102
13411
15312
17214
14206
9665
9649
4786
9805
10084
18045
10517
Sukapura
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
61
717
288
TOTAL
(in pikul)
38285
81407
86574
66705
65676
105996
80833
121902
94782
64464
62174
39004
53236
65103
160023
81085
Source: "Statistiek der Residentie Preanger Regentschappen 1837", Preanger 29a/1 1837, ANRI
Organization of Production
Generally the success of coffee cultivation in Priangan was not only thanks
to ecological factors, such as suitable and fertile soils but also practically the
cultivation was operated by a system that has been credited to state coercion,
building on traditional forms of tribute levying and forced labour.15 The Dutch
administration did not contact to village inhabitants directly and did not interfere
in the execution of cultivation. The colonial government left almost all aspects of
15
Frans van Baardewijk, 1994: 152.
9
coffee production in the indigenous hands both of peasant growers and local
heads, despite some efforts at modernization in the late of nineteenth century.
Coffee cultivation consequently remained outside the close supervision of the
administration. This was in str iking contrast to sugar cultivation, which was
scrupulously managed by colonial officials. 16 All regulations related to the coffee
cultivation, included the distribution of the burdens and other tasks, have been a
matter of the village administration. The local heads, ranging from the regents to
the village heads, were responsible to organize daily activities. Even between the
regent and the village heads, the two ends of the formal line of administration,
there was a range of “intermediary heads” who had a real influence on the
implementation of the colonial system of exploitation in this region.17
On their
hands the coffee cultivation to which required a lot of additional labour and land
was arranged. They designated areas for coffee planting, assembled labour, and
supervised cultivation and harvesting. 18 In the respect, the way in whi
ch
government cultivation were organized did not differ from that of corvee services
(heerendiensten), that is, the money unpaid services for all kinds of projects and
works for which the governments call up people.19
Little known which mode of coffee production firstly operated in Priangan
among the three: regular plantation, agro-forestry, and hedge and kampong coffee.
But, seemingly, hedgerow mode was the initial; thereafter the coffee cultivation
16
M.R. Fernando. 2003. “Coffee Cultivation in Java, 1830-1917“, in William Gervase ClaranceSmith and Steven Topik. Coffee Economy in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, 1500-1898.
Cambridge University Press, p. 158.
17
Frans van Baardewijk, 1994: 152.
18
W.G. Clarence-Smith. 1994. “The Impact of Forced Coffee Cultivation on Java, 1805-1917”, in
Indonesia Circle, No. 64, p. 245.
19
C. Fasseur, 1975: 29.
10
concentrated on the plantation system.20 These different kinds of production were
significant both for administration reasons and other regulations: workforces,
distribution of wage labour, transportation, and so on.21
Growing coffee in plantation located far away from villages was the most
onerous mode of operation for peasants, but the government preferred it, because
of its greater short-term productive capacity. The distance from village growers to
coffee plantations varied between 10, 20 and 34 paal. Therefore, coffee planters
had to build pangkalans or prataks (shelters) in the plantations, so they could stay
there in the times of preparing, harvesting and transporting. 22 To prepare coffee
plantations, people assigned were mobilized all together. They cleared land of
shrubs and large trees and ploughed, weeded, terraced, and fenced the cleared
land, before planting out. This preliminary work was normally carried out during
the dry season, but it continued into the early part of wet season. During this
initial phase, coffee-planting household were required to stay in temporary
shelters to save time and labour.23
Forest coffee was simple planted in suitable areas, usually involving only
the removal and burning of undergrowth before planting took place; thereafter the
crop sites required periodic weeding and clearing. Hedgerow coffee was similarly
uncomplicated, since it was generally cultivated in well-settled and established
environments in either house garden or small village plots which allowed great
participation in their maintenance, harvesting, and processing by women and
20
The change of orientation likely had begun since the last of 1840s.
Frans van Baardewijk, 1994: 158.
22
AV Priangan, 30/3, 1852, ANRI.
23
R.E. Elson, 1994: 65; M.R. Fernando, 2003: 166; Frans van Baardewijk, 1994: 160-167.
21
11
children. Little labour was needed for clearing the land, weeding was kept to a
minimum by the canopy of tall trees.24 Because much of the coffee classification
as hedgerow coffee was on reality grown in small plots to village, therefore, such
a mode known also as kampong coffee.
Among the three modes, which ones was the most popular within
Priangan? At least, based on the comparison of each mode along the nineteenth
century, there were different tendencies by each decade. In 1830s and early 1840s
hedgerow and forest coffee were very popular in Priangan; even by 1837 in
regencies of Bandung and Sumedang were more than fifty percent coffee trees in
hedgerow or kampong, and in regency Sukapura more than 63 percent in forest.
By 1839 the increasing number of coffee trees in hedgerow or kampong were
happened in three regencies of Bandung, Sumedang and Sukapura respectively
55.71%, 55,48%, and 53% (see Appendix 5.A).
In the beginning periods of 1850s, contrast to before, coffee cultivation
largely concentrated to plantation mode, even for 1857 – 1868 more than 80
percent as plantation coffee (TABLE 3). As comparison, in 1870 forest coffee was
very popular in Pasuruan; even, by 1875 some two-third of coffee in the crucial
area of Pasuruan was cultivated under this mode,25 while hedgerow coffee was
much practiced in Kedu and Banyumas. 26
24
R.E. Elson, 1994: 65-66; W.G. Clarence-Smith, 1994: 252.
Ibid.
26
Frans van Baardewijk, 1994: 167.
25
12
TABLE 3
83,14
82,35
80,51
80,97
90
84,17
TYPES OF COFFEE CULTIVATION IN PRIANGAN
(in % )
66,37
70
67,57
80
60
50
0,26
10,56
6,6
8,8
7,03
10,26
7,39
11,51
7,98
9,68
10
6,81
20
9,35
26,82
30
32,17
40
0
1854
1857
1860
Plantation
1863
Forest
1866
1868
1874
Hedgerow
* Calculation based on KV 1854, Bijlaag K, No. 12; KV 1857, Bijlage N, No. 12; KV 1860,
Bijlage O, No. 14; KV 1863, Bijlaag O, No. 17; KV 1866, Bijlage IJ, No. 26; KV 1869, Bijlage
EE, No. 3 CC; KV 1874, Bijlaag NN, No. 40.
In addition to the government coffee in Priangan developed also private
coffee plantations. Although much mentioned that private entrepreneurs began to
cultivate export crops by 1870s as consequence of introducing Liberal Policy, but
in case of Priangan the participation of private enterprises had already begun as
early as nineteenth century. Since first decade of nineteenth century coffee had
been cultivated in private lands, which was in Ujungberung (Regency Bandung),
Gunung Parang, and Ciputri (Regency Cianjur). In 1813 the private coffee
13
cultivation had begun to produce, although just contributed seven percent from
total production from throughout Priangan27 (TABLE 4).
TABLE 4
YIELDING COFFEE OF PRIANGAN, 1808-1821
(in pikul of 125 A.p.)
YEAR
1808
1809
1810
1811
1812
1813
1814
1815
1816
1817
1818
1819
1820
1821
TOTAL
Government Coffee
106.223,12
96.583,55
91.191,92
17.654,10
43.022,10
41.670,48
36.878,11
54.641,11
56.712,12
52.782,11
69.600,11
54.813,58
43.332,18
82.182,38
847.286,96
Ujungberung
256,38
287,28
854,10
886,30
694,85
782,12
1.185,81
1.144,77
1.904,50
7.996,11
Private Coffee
Gunung Parang
4.103,53
1.101,86
3.725,88
3.121,78
10.932,69
11.272,75
7.001,44
5.133,10
8.835,82
55.228,85
Ciputri
4,28
97,00
116,54
123,40
480,40
821,62
Source: A.V. Preanger 34/1, 1840, ANRI.
In the 1840s private coffee cultivation had increasingly boosted in all
regencies, except Tasikmalaya. More than 70 million coffee trees were cultivated
and in 1853 had produced 321,610 pikul. The Bandung Regency was the most
popular area of private coffee from where more than three-fourth trees and
product were from there.28 Then, in 1870s private coffee plantations both on
huur- en erfpacht lands were some of 58 plantations which had reached in large of
20,249 bahu spread in almost all afdeelingen in Priangan (TABLE 5).
27
28
AV Preanger 34/1, 1840, ANRI.
Archieve Minister van Kolonien, 1850-1900 (Inv. Nr. 27), 14 February 1856, ARA.
14
TABLE 5
PRIVATE COFFEE ENTERPRISES
ON HUUR-EN ERFPACHT LAND IN 1870s
AFDEELING
Bandung
Cicalengka
Cianjur
Sukabumi
Sumedang
Tasikmalaya
Total
Number
1
5
25
23
3
1
58
SIZE
(in bahu)
409
1,595
7,948
9,116
629
552
20,249
Source: K.F. van Delden Laerne, “Verslag over de Koffeecultuur in Amerika, Azie en Afrika”, in
Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indie. Negende deel. 1885,
pp. 539-540.
Some of the private coffee plantations which were most popular were
Sitiarja (Afdeeling Cicalengka), Calorama, and Cibungur (Afdeeling Sukabumi).
These three plantations since 1873 had begun to produce.29 In the same time the
government had opened the opportunity to the indigenous to open up coffee
plantations then known as vrijwillig, merdeka or manasuka tuinen
plantation). By 1874 reported in eight afdelingen
(free
of Priangan residency there
were 382 indigenous peasants who cultivate coffee in large of 4,729 bahu. 30
Labour
Coffee cultivation made demands on the work. How heavy a burden on the
shoulders of the planters was the work required? According to the calculation of
29
K.F. van Delden Laerne, “Verslag over de Koffeecultuur in Amerika, Azie en Afrika”, in
Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indie. Negende deel. 1885, pp.
539-540.
30
Koloniaal Verslag, 1875.
15
the Director of Cultivation, B.J. Elias, for a new plantation of 600 shrubs a planter
had to work 135 days a year for the first three years. The burden practically varied
in each region. 31 In Priangan the burden of coffee cultivation greatly varied among
the regencies as well among periods of time. In 1820s population engaged to
government’s forced coffee was just about 33.70 percent, to which was
responsible on average some of 534 trees of coffee.32 In 1830s the percentage of
population involved and the amount of trees had to have been maintained were
considerable increased to 62.74 percent and 1,275 trees in 1837 and to 64.36
percent and 1,092 trees in 1839, respectively. 33 By 1852 each household was
obliged to cultivate coffee of about 1000 shrubs and worked on average of 100
days per year.34 In 1852 some of 113,447 house holds in Priangan engaged in
forced coffee cultivation, more of 39,782 households than in 1837 (TABLE 6). By
1859 each households cultivated and maintained no more than 600 trees.35 By the
time of 1864 the household growers were 63,32 percent, each of them maintained
600 trees.36
31
For example, in Regency Galuh in 1857-1862, the regent R.A.A. Kusuma di Ningrat, calculated
that in his regency the work required to plant and maintain 500 shrubs according to administration
rules amounted to an average of 115 man-days a year (Frans van Baardewijk, 1994: 163); Elson
has collected widely varying estimates as to the number of days of labour performed in coffee
work by households, ranging from 53 days per year in Semarang in 1856 to 124 days in Tegal in
1865. In 1871 estimates ranged from 100 to 240 person-days. Households were usually allocated
600 trees in regular plantations and or forest, but this varied greatly. Enthusiastic officials in
Mojokerto had burdened their people with an average of 1,674 trees per households by 1837
(Elson, 1994: 65, 89, 205, 231; W.G. Clarence-Smith, 1994: 255).
32
Calculated from AV Preanger 29a/7, 1828, ANRI.
33
"Statistiek der Residentie Preanger Regentschappen 1837", Preanger 29a/1 1837, ANRI.; AV
Preanger 34/1, 1839, ANRI.
34
AV Preanger 30/3 1852, ANRI.
35
AV Preanger 5/1 1859, ANRI.
36
AV Preanger, 30/6, 1864, ANRI.
16
TABLE 6
HOUSEHOLDS ENGAGED IN FORCED COFFEE CULTIVATION
REGENCY
Cinjur
Bandung
Sumedang
Sukapura
Limbangan
Total
1836/37
29,716
30,749
4,208
6,789
2,203
73,665
1852
30,029
37,493
33,119
6,456
6,350
113,447
Sources: Preanger Statistiek, Preanger 7/1 1839; AV Preanger 30/3 1852, ANRI.
Decreasing of both peasant growers and the number of government’s
coffee trees in throughout Priangan likely had already seemed since 1850s. The
drastically decreased of coffee trees had happened in 1870s, so that in 1874 a
household just maintained government coffee on average of 220 trees. From 1876
onwards the number of government coffee gradually increased again (TABLE 7).
TABEL 7
HOUSEHOLDS OF COFFEE GROWERS IN PLANTATION AND FOREST
Households of
coffee growers
1854
90,845
1857
84,195
1860
89,801
1863
85,042
1866
87,146
1868
91,223
1874
121,054
1876/77
117,062
1880
118,515
1882
128,072
1885
92,363
1888
87,825
1893
71,621
1897
75,657
* n.d. = no data
YEAR
Number of
coffee trees
64,712,369
56,729,964
44,789,254
40,168,440
39,660,814
37,801,110
26,594,008
30,950,994
37,140,656
42,116,671
n.d.*
70,396,038
92,711,198
67,654,442
Coffee trees
per household
712
674
498
472
455
414
220
264
313
456
n.d.*
802
1294
894
Sources: KV 1854, Bijlaag K, No. 12; KV 1857, Bijlage N, No. 12; KV 1860, Bijlage O, No. 14;
KV 1863, Bijlaag O, No. 17; KV 1866, Bijlage IJ, No. 26; KV 1869, Bijlage EE, No. 3 CC. KV
1874, Bijlaag NN, No. 40; KV 1877, Bijlaag M, No. 40; KV 1881, Bijlage UU, No. 47. KV 1883,
Bijlage CCC, No. 55; KV 1886, Bijlage VV, No. 47; KV 1889, Bijlage UU, No. 47; KV 1894
Bijlage ZZ, No. 52; KV 1898, Bijlage SS, No. 45.
17
Crop Payment
Instrument to stimulate the indigenous planters to grow coffee and to
increase production was by means of crop payments; whereas to increase the
involvements of local heads and European administration was applying the
notorious cultivation percentage which gave officials a direct financial interest.
Theoretically,
peasants’
response
to
coffee
cultivation
woul
d be
increasingly depended on the payment for their crop and work; while the local
crop payment followed the fluctuation of world coffee price. Such a theory did not
always happen in Priangan. Although Priangan peasants were disinclined to
undertake work that did not bring them adequate financial rewards, they could not
give up coffee plantation, because it was a compulsory crop. Therefore, the
member of households forced to cultivate coffee rose until it amounted to nearly
60 percent of all peasant households across Java throughout the middle decades of
the nineteenth century. West Java in which Priangan had been a core region had
more coffee growers than Central and East Java (TABLE 8).37
Peasants households’ enthusiasm for coffee, really, somewhat waned when
it brought little money; however, there was sill other reason of enthusiasm of
peasants to grow coffee that was correlated to the level need of ready money. To
raise their money income, they found it on coffee. Coffee was for a time a
reasonably source of cash, notably, for people who could grow it on a small scale
in forest and hedge or kampong near their homes.
37
M.R. Fernando, 2003: 169.
18
TABLE 8
HOUSEHOLDS OF FORCED COFFEE CULTIVATION 1830-1870
REGION
West Java
Central
Java
East
Java
Java
PEASANT HOUSHOLDS
Number peasant households
% all peasant households
Number peasant households
% all peasant households
Number peasant households
% all peasant households
Number peasant households
% all peasant households
1836
159,689
65
148,496
32
97,560
27
405,745
38
1840
161,422
57
192,361
40
111,101
30
464,884
41
1850
134,521
45
153,093
39
113,606
27
401,220
36
1870
139,857
47
192,834
31
133,516
27
466,207
33
Source: M.R. Fernando, “Coffee Cultivation in Java, 1830-1917“, in William Gervase ClaranceSmith and Steven Topik. 2003. Coffee Economy in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, 1500-1898.
Cambridge University Press, p. 171.
There were three tendencies of coffee price development in this residency.
In the eighteenth century that was early periods when coffee cultivation
introduced the price of coffee clearly tended to follow world market. Thereafter,
in the nineteenth century the government purchased coffee in very lower fixed
price. Three decades towards the end of the nineteenth century onwards the
government began to increase somewhat higher than before. And, in really, the
fluctuation of payment had no a positive correlation to the expansion of trees and
product, because of the forced nature of coffee cultivation. When the fluctuation
of product happened, that was not caused by the fluctuation of purchasing price,
but rather due to natural factors, such as on the weather that was to have been
either too dry or too wet.
In 1711 when the regent of Cianjur, Aria Wiratnu, offered the first
consignment of coffee to the VOC, he requested that a price be fixed, and this was
done to eight heavy (or in Asian valuation, ten light) stuiver per pond. According
19
to the letter of 23 July 1711, the Heeren XVII (VOC directorate) would have been
prepared to pay up to eight or even fifteen stuivers per pond. For a time, however,
supplies remained negligible, at most a few thousand pounds. Such a high price
seemingly attracted to the Priangan peasantry, so that towards the end of 1720 the
production of coffee reached 100,000 ponds. By 1724 the enormous expansion of
production in Priangan appeared an anxiety to the Heeren XVII in the Netherlands
and the High Government in Batavia about overproduction. The anxiety was in
really happened, not long after that coffee price on the European market
stagnated; in the Netherlands it self was just f 1.00 per pond (TABLE 9).
TABLE 9
COFFEE PRICES IN THE NETHERLANDS
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
YEAR
1720-29
1730-39
1740-49
1750-59
1760-69
1770-79
1780-89
1790-99
1800-09
GUILDER/
POND
0.89
0.68
0.57
0.58
0.53
0.49
0.50
0.82
1.03
Source: David Bulbeck et al. 1998. Southeast Asian Exports since the 14th
Cloves, Pepper, Coffee, and Sugar. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian
Studies, p. 175.
Therefore, the Heeren XVII insisted on a price reduction. In 1725 the High
Government in Batavia reduced prices for West Priangan coffee from twenty to
20
nine rixdollars for a pikul of 125 ponds; prices for East Priangan coffee were
reduced to ten rixdollars a pikul. On 15 January 1726 a definite decision about
prices was taken in Batavia, each pikul from Priangan would be worth five
rixdollars. This meant a price of coffee only two and half stuivers per pond38.
Although the price of coffee in Java, excluded Priangan, was higher than that of
coffee in Priangan, but it remained to indicate the similar tendency. Table 5.10
demonstrates that from 1720 to 1767 the price steadily decreased, and from 1769
until the end of the century seemed the fixed price worth 8.9 rixdollars per pikul.
TABLE 10
COFFEE PRICES PAID BY VOC IN JAVA
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
YEAR
1720
1727
1733
1735
1740s
1754
1756
1759
1761
1767
RIXDOLLARS
PER PIKUL
20.5
5.0
7.0
7.0
n.d.
12.1
13.2
13.2
13.2
12.1
YEAR
1769
1770
1772
1775
1778
1786
1787
1790
1791
1792
RIXDOLLARS
PER PIKUL
8.9
8.9
8.9
8.9
8.9
8.9
9.6
8.9
8.9
8.9
Source: David Bulbeck et al. 1998. Southeast Asian Exports since the 14th
Cloves, Pepper, Coffee, and Sugar. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian
Studies, p. 168.
The other reasons to implement the price reduction were of a security feed,
financial, and political nature. In the early days of Priangan coffee, when the VOC
paid a good price, the response was good. The cultivators were said to be
38
G.J. Knaap, 1986: 41.
21
delighted at the unfamiliar experience of earning money, and it was even feared
that they might neglect to grow rice, because they could maintain themselves with
less effort and more profit by coffee. When, however, in 1726 the government at
Batavia, lacking specie and hearing that some regents were using the money to
buy fire-arm, drastically reduced the price.39 Moreover, the Heeren XVII feared
that in the end Priangan might hold a monopoly in the production of coffee. A
monopoly such as this would secure the considerable revenue of the Priangan
producers. West Priangan, for example, in 1725 produced over 3,150,000 ponds
and east Priangan produced 650,000 ponds would received about f.733,000 and
280,000 respectively. As a consequence, these regions might become importance
centre of political power. The rise of such centres of power so close to Batavia
was to be prevented.40
Respond to the price reduction within Priangan was not felt equally
everywhere. The production in East Priangan even increased. In 1730 East
Priangan was to produce nearly as much as the western.41 The indigenous
population of Priangan, however, continued cultivation, although the returns for
the producers were seldom attractive either. In the year 1729 – 1730, even
thousands new trees were planted in Central Priangan.42 In West Java, generally,
by the second half of eighteenth century the coffee product delivered to the
39
H.R.C. Wright. 1961. East-Indian Economic Problems of the Age of Cornwallis and Raffles,
London: Luzac and Company, p. 27.
40
G.J. Knaap, 1986: 41.
41
Ibid., p. 43.
42
Ibid.
22
government storehouses even increased, although the price was no more than f.
2.42 per pikul43 (see GRAPH A.1).
6000
GRAPHIC A.1
COFFEE DELIVERIES OF WEST JAVA 1745-1794
(in ton)
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
1755
1760
1765
1770
1775
1780
1785
1790
1795
1800
The chart is based on the Creutzberg’s statistical data of the CEI vol. I (see also Stevens, 1982:
155)
Until the first three decades of nineteenth century the compulsory coffee
cultivation which subjected to monopoly was just prevailed within Priangan. The
obligation to deliver coffee to the government was imposed on the people of other
residencies by 1833 when the Governor General issued a resolution of 3 February
(Indische Staatsblad. 1833, no. 7). Before this time, peasants of other residencies
maintained coffee plantations and they had been free to dispose as they wished of
43
Henri Charles van Marten. 1887. Overzicht van de hervormin van het Preanger-Stelsel, Leiden:
J.J. Groen, p. 26.
23
the product. As a consequence, most their coffee sold to private buyers.
44
Van
den Bosch, however, did not include coffee cultivation as early as the cultivation
system operated. There were, at least, three reasons to explain it. First, prices of
coffee were low in the 1830s. Second, he wished to eliminate the suggestion that
his new policies in Java were just based on compulsory. Third, there was no
immediate advantage in aligning coffee cultivation with his policies. 45
Within this period there were three categories of coffee price policy in
which closely related to the obligation of land rent levying to the government. The
three categories were represented in three modes of residencies in which the
differences of levying land rent operated, namely, Priangan residency, residencies
of Madiun, Kediri, Pacitan, Banyuwangi, and the rests.
Coffee prices in Priangan until 1873 were considerably lower and always
below the standard level, because in this residency no land rent on non-coffee
land was collected by the Dutch, but special taxes was due to the local heads, the
amount of which is accurately not known.46 There is no official reason why the
land rent system was not introduced in Priangan residency. It might be, perhaps,
because people in this residency have too few means and resources to be subjected
to a regular monetary tax as happens in the coastal residencies; but more likely
because of fears of tinkering with the lucrative Priangan coffee system. 47 Before
44
C. Fasseur, 1975: 36.
R.E. Elson, 1994: 63.
46
Frans van Baarderwijk, 1993. ”The Cultivation System, Java 1834-1880“, in Changing
Economy in Indonesia, Volume 14. Amsterdam: Royal Tropical Institut, p. 13-19; W.G. ClarenceSmith, 1994: 246.
47
R.E. Elson, 1994: 47.
45
24
1837, for instance, the crop payment was just about f. 2.42 to f.2.92 ½ per pikul,48
whereas in Surakarta and Yogyakarta f. 18.33 and rest of Java f. 10.00.49
Van den Bosch by means of a resolution of 3 February 1833 wished a
highly advantage from a minimum price for coffee to which it related to tax
burden. His original intention was that every kind of land rent should be deducted
from coffee payments. Such a form prevailed only in rather remote and backward
areas like Pacitan, Madiun, Kediri and Banyuwangi. Peasants in these residencies
had to plant a relatively large number of coffee trees per household. They also
received less money for their coffee than in other residencies, on the grounds that
land rent for every category of land was deducted from coffee payment. In1837,
for example, when in Priangan was about f. 3.13 per pikul, in Pacitan, Madiun,
and Kediri were f. 6.25; and it lowered to f. 5.21 per pikul in 1844. Over the long
term, their income might have been larger if they had received a higher payment
for their coffee land, and then paid land rent on non-coffee land separately.50 In
Madiun, Pacitan, and Kediri such policy put an end in 1859; and in Banyuwangi
in 1873.
In all other residencies subjected to forced cultivation, payments of coffee
were meant to reflect market price in Batavia, which at that time was fixed at f
25.00 per pikul of 125 ponds. From that of per pikul price the government,
however, deducted a 40% in respect to land rent owed specifically for coffee
48
Henri Charles van Marten , 1887: 26.; C. Fasseur, 1975: 38.
K.F. van Delden Laerne, “Verslag over de Koffeecultuur in Amerika, Azie en Afrika”, in
Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indie. Negende deel. 1885, pp.
536-537.
50
K.F. van Delden Laerne, 1885: 536-37.; Cf. W.G. Clarence-Smith, 1994: 246; C. Fasseur, 1975:
36.
49
25
lands;51 and, furthermore, took a sum of f 3.00 for the cost of transporting coffee
from the storehouses in the interior to the storehouses on the coast; in addition, the
government from fear of being short-changed in deliveries, still took on every
pikul of coffee 2%. Consequently, the grower actually received less than half of
the officially fixed price, namely f. 12 per pikul.52 Therefore, the adjustment to
market prices such as meant in the resolution did not happen in practice. As a
comparison of coffee price across Java it could be seen on the graph A.2.
Generally, it can be said that coffee payment was paid below world
market prices, and hence the government obtained a high profit margin from
selling them in the Netherlands. The new policy financially successful beyond the
expectations of Dutch politicians, and it remained in place until 1870s. At this
point, its basic principle came to be politically unacceptable, and they were
replaced by a set of liberal di eas. However, compulsion in the coffee sector
prevailed on much longer than for other crops.53
Indeed, by 1870 a set of new economic opportunities opened up and world
coffee prices rose ever higher. Although it influenced to higher purchasing price
of peasants coffee, however, the fixed price of government coffee remained
increasingly unrealistic. In 1870, producers received f.13.00 per pikul, when the
average auction price in Java was f.33.00. In 1874 the price in Amsterdam auction
was almost f.64.00, compared to f.14.00 received by growers.54
51
And land rent for non-coffee lands was assessed for the whole village, usually as a fixed
proportion of the rice harvest, and was paid in a quite separate transaction.
52
C. Fasseur, 1975: 36-37; R.E. Elson, 1994: 63; W.G. Clarence-Smith, 1994: 247.
53
R.M. Fernando, 2003: 160.
54
W.G. Clarence-Smith, 1994: 248.
26
GRAPH A.2
COFFEE PRICE IN JAVA AND THE NETHERLANDS
IN THE 19th CENTURY
70
60
Surakarta en
Jogjakarta
n
e
d
lu
g
n
i
50
40
Pacitan, Madiun,
Kediri
PreangerRegentschappen
30
20
10
0
1820
Overige gewesten
van Java
Prijs in Nederland
1840
1860
1880
1900
years
The chart is based on the data of K.F. van Delden Laerne’s table on the “Verslag over de
Koffeecultuur in Amerika, Azie en Afrika”, in Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van
Nederlandsch Indie. Negende deel. 1885, pp. 536-537.
Cultivation Percentage
The other effective means to speed development and to make officials
cooperate in the introduction and expansion of government cultivations, besides
crop payment, was the cultivation percentage; that is the government granted
incentive payments both to European and local heads in proportion to the amount
of coffee, indigo, and so on produced in the residency or area of their
administrative function.55 The higher the production is the higher the cultivation
55
C. Fasseur, 1975: 44; R.E. Elson,1994: 182.
27
percentage. For those who served faithfully, the rewards could be substantial;
sometimes these payments were greater than official income.
Therefore, indeed, could be said that cultivation percentage had double
functions. In one side, as we know that the implementation of coffee cultivation in
Priangan was almost completely in the hands of indigenous heads, for which they
did not receive salary from the government treasury; because of no land rent was
levied from this residency. Alternatively, these percentages were the only source
of their income, as a compensation of no salary from the government treasury. In
the other side, these percentages could encourage the officials to boost plantation
and production.
The cultivation percentage was practiced within Priangan, at least, as early
as period of Dutch colonial administration. The payment of coffee percentage to
regents and lesser chiefs in Priangan was regulated in a decree of 1808.56 In 17
March 1810 Daendels decided the tariff and nine indigenous officials who were
entitled to these percentages and the tariff (TABLE 11).
56
C. Faseur, 1975: 248..
28
TABLE 11
PERCENTAGE OF COFFEE IN PRIANGAN (1810)
Regent
Patih
Two Ngabehis
Cutak/district heads
Two Commissioners
Mandors of cutak
Camat
Secretary
Lengser
12 stuivers of each pikul coffee of 126/128 A.p.
1 stuiver for all delivering of coffee of regency
1 stuiver for all delivery of coffee of regency
4 stuivers for delivering of each cutak
2 stuivers for delivering of each cutak
2 stuivers for delivering of each cutak
1 stuiver for delivering of his cutak
½ stuiver for all delivering
½ stuiver for all delivering
Source: Van der Chijs, J.A. 1897. Nederlandsch-Indisch Plakaatboek, 1602-1811.
Zestiende deel 1810-1811. Batavia-’s Hage: Landsdrukkerij-M.Nijhoff. pp. 133-134.
In addition, the government in 17 June 1811 appointed nine controllers of
coffee cultivation, whom the percentages were also paid. These nine controllers
were
in
Buitenzorg,
Cianjur,
uSkaraja,
Rongga,
Bandung,
Tarogong,
Parakanmuncang, Sukapura and Sumedang. Each received some 12 stuivers for
delivering of a pikul of 126/128 ponds plus yearly income between 1,500 – 2000
rixdollars of silver money.57 In the period of the Cultivation System Van den
Bosch more supported that the implementation of cultivation percentage; even it
was not only to indigenous heads but also European officials; and it was in effect
to other residencies. He had thought the introduction of cultivation percentage was
fair because government cultivations, certainly in the beginning, caused the
officials concerned a lot of extra work.58
By 1836 for delivering coffee of minimum 90,000 pikul, the officials of
Priangan enjoyed the percentage as follows:
57
Van der Chijs, J.A. 1897. Nedrlandsch-Indisch Plakaatboek, 1602-1811. Zestiende deel 18101811. Batavia-’s Hage: Landsdrukkerij-M.Nijhoff. pp. 591-594.
58
C. Fasseur, 1975: 248.
29
TABLE 4.12
TARIFF OF THE COFFEE PERCENTAGE IN PRIANGAN (1836)
Level of officials
Regent
Minor heads59
Resident
Assistant Resident
Controller
Cultivation Percentage
for each pikul of 125 ponds
f. 1.20
48 cents
6 cents
6 cents
6 cents
Source: “Statistiek der residentie Preanger Regentschappen 1837”, Preanger 29a/1 1837, ANRI
Total coffee percentage they received in 1836 was f.205,487.70 (TABLE
13). Until 1850s and 1860s the number of officials enjoyed cultivation percentage
and the tariff remained stable; and the total earnings of percentage of every year
was not always same, but depended on the number of coffee production levied to
the government’s storehouses. There were great differences in the cultivation
percentage paid among regents and lesser chiefs in Java. During the periods of
1858-60s, as comparison, the four regents in Banten received annually on average
less than f.2,500, but the five regents of neighbouring Priangan regencies received
no less than f.90,000, or 36 times as much. The five regents in Surabaya received
59
The minor heads included and their tariff (in cent) were:
1. patih
:
3.50
2. head mantri
:
1.00
3. kaliwon
:
1.00
4. secretary
:
0.50
5. head of jongol
:
0.50
6. commissionaire
:
5.00
7. head of district
:
16.00
8. camat
:
3.50
9. secretary of district
:
1.50
10. lengser of district
:
1.00
11. patinggi
:
4.00
12. mandor of coffee plantation :
6.00
13. head of village
:
2.50
14. priayi
:
2.00
Source: “Statistiek der residentie Preanger Regentschappen 1837”, Preanger 29a/1 1837, ANRI.
30
f. 26,000 per year; the three regents in Pasuruan received f. 38,000, and three four
regents in Rembang f. 3,600.60
TABLE 13
COFFEE PERCENTAGE IN PRIANGAN (1836)
LEVEL OF
OFFICIALS
Five Regents
Minor heads
Resident
Assistant Resident
Controller class I
Controller class II
Total
CULTIVATION
PERCENTAGE
FOR EACH PIKUL OF
125 PONDS (in f.)
128,757.83
73,103.09
933.81
933.81
933.81
825.35
205,487.70
Source: “Statistiek der residentie Preanger Regentschappen 1837”, Preanger 29a/1 1837, ANRI.
60
C. Fasseur, 1975: 248.
31
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I.
Archieves:
Algemeene Verslag van Preanger-Regentschappen Preanger 29a/7, 1828, ANRI.
Algemeene Verslag van Preanger-Regentschappen Priangan, 29a/19, 1932.
Algemeene Verslag van Preanger-Regentschappen Preanger, 2/7, 1935.
Algemeene Verslag van Preanger-Regentschappen Preanger 36/3, 1835.
Algemeene Verslag van Preanger-Regentschappen Preanger 7/1, 1837.
Algemeene Verslag van Preanger-Regentschappen Preanger 34/1, 1839.
Algemeene Verslag van Preanger-Regentschappen Preanger 34/1, 1840, ANRI.
Algemeene Verslag van Preanger-Regentschappen Preanger 30/3 1852, ANRI.
Algemeene Verslag van Preanger-Regentschappen Preanger 5/1 1859, ANRI
Algemeene Verslag van Preanger-Regentschappen Preanger, 30/6, 1864, ANRI.
Archieve Minister van Kolonien, 1850-1900 (Inv. Nr. 27), 14 February 1856,
ARA.
Preanger Statistiek 1836,
“Statistiek der residentie Preanger Regentschappen 1837”, Preanger 29a/1 1837, ANRI.
Preanger Statistiek, Preanger 7/1 1839.
II.
Printed Documents:
Koloniaal Verslag 1854, Bijlaag K, No. 12.
Koloniaal Verslag 1857, Bijlage N, No. 12.
Koloniaal Verslag 1860, Bijlage O, No. 14.
Koloniaal Verslag 1863, Bijlaag O, No. 17.
Koloniaal Verslag 1866, Bijlage IJ, No. 26.
Koloniaal Verslag 1869, Bijlage EE, No. 3 CC.
Koloniaal Verslag 1874, Bijlaag NN, No. 40.
Koloniaal Verslag, 1875.
Koloniaal Verslag 1866, Bijlage IJ, No. 26.
Koloniaal Verslag 1881, Bijlage UU, No. 47.
Koloniaal Verslag 1883, Bijlage CCC, No. 55.
Koloniaal Verslag 1886, Bijlage VV, No. 47.
Koloniaal Verslag 1889, Bijlage UU, No. 47.
Koloniaal Verslag 1894 Bijlage ZZ, No. 52.
Koloniaal Verslag 1898, Bijlage SS, No. 45.
III.
Books, Articles:
van Baarderwijk, Frans 1993. ”The Cultivation System, Java 1834-1880“, in
Changing Economy in Indonesia, Volume 14. Amsterdam: Royal Tropical
Institut.
32
van Baardewijk, Frans. 1994. “Rural Response to Intensifying Colonial
Exploitation; Coffee, State and Society in Central and East Java, 18301880“, in G.J. Schutte. State and Trade in the Indonesian Archipelago.
Leiden: KITLV Press.
Bulbeck, David et al. (comp.). 1998. Southeast Asian Exports since the 14th
Cloves, Pepper, Coffee, and Sugar. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian
Studies.
van der Chijs, J.A.. 1897. Nedrlandsch-Indisch Plakaatboek, 1602-1811.
Zestiende deel 1810-1811. Batavia-’s Hage: Landsdrukkerij-M.Nijhoff.
Clarence-Smith, W.G.. 1994. “The Impact of Forced Coffee Cultivation on Java,
1805-1917”, in Indonesia Circle, No. 64.
Fasseur, C. 1975. The Politics of Colonial Exploitation in Java; the Dutch and the
Cultivation System. SEAP: Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
Fernando, M.R.. 2003. “Coffee Cultivation in Java, 1830-1917“, in William
Gervase Clarance-Smith and Steven Topik. Coffee Economy in Africa,
Asia, and Latin America, 1500-1898. Cambridge University Press.
de Klein, Jacob Worter. 1931. Het Preanger-stelsel (1677-1871) en Zijn
Nawerking (Doctor diss., Leiden). Delf: J. Waltman Jr.
Knaap, G.J.. 1986. ”Coffee for Cash; the Dutch East I